"This is a scam; our advice to anyone receiving such calls is to hang up and to report it to police," Detective Superintendent Terry Lawrence said.

"These forms of social engineering attacks, seen here, across Australia and the world, see criminals pretend to be from a legitimate organisation or government authority to get access to money or personal information."

The scam has promoted Queensland Police to release a video, featuring the Financial and Cyber Crime Group's Detective Senior Constable Shawn Chia, in Mandarin warning Chinese nationals of the scam.

Police said they will work alongside federal agencies to protect the community from these incidents.